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Newbies To Movies Podcast
Were Tyler and Justin, Two Friends who want to dive deeper into movies. We invite you to join our new podcast for laughs, debates, and deep dives into everything on screen. This is your Backseat pass for movie lovers. Grab your popcorn the show starts now!
Newbies To Movies Podcast
EP.51 Matt Damon
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On this episode of the Newbies to Movies Podcast, hosts Tyler and Justin dive into the early-to-mid-career triumphs of Matt Damon. They contrast his grounded, gritty work as the amnesiac operative in The Bourne Identity with his chilling, deeply layered psychological performance as a con artist in The Talented Mr. Ripley. Following their in-depth discussion, the hosts round out the episode by ranking his top 10 best acting performances. Based on critical consensus and retrospective analyses
Yo yo yo, it's newbies to movies. I'm Tyler and I'm Justin. This is a podcast where we like to talk about new movies that we're watching, with this theme, this week's theme being Matt Damon. Kind of a lining. This is gonna come out quite after the Odyssey comes out. But we're doing like a Matt Damon and Christopher Nolan back-to-back weeks, just in light of like the Odyssey coming out and being the biggest movie of the year, if we're being quite honest, and the summer by far. But yeah, before we get into that, we'll just talk about what movies we've been watching lately. If you want to start off, Justin.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so not really a movie, but I've been watching a show. I kind of binged the hell out of it this week. Uh it's called The Runarounds on Amazon Prime. I don't know if you've ever seen it, but uh it's basically I love that show. Okay, so you have seen it. Yeah, dude, it was sick. Uh definitely a little corny, like it feels like you know, high school TV show, but uh I love the music in it. I think the music's really great, and I think the songwriting aspect of it is a really cool plot line. I found out that it got canceled, so that kind of sucks.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I was really pissed when they canceled it so early, too, with it, dude. I was so pissed.
SPEAKER_00I know. I was like kind of looking into the band too, and they only have like a hundred thousand followers on Instagram and stuff, so I was like, dang, people must have really not watched this when it came out. Normally something like that would really blow up, you know. I think like the Outer Banks or something of that nature. Um, you know how that blew up.
SPEAKER_02It actually the band started because the uh creator of Outer Banks hired them, and he's the same creator of this show.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And like hired them to play for the Outer Bank show, and then they're like, all right, let's create a show out of you guys. Yeah, dude, I really liked it when it came out. I started listening to their music right when it came out, too. Because I think they're really good for their age. Yeah. The drums the drummer is actually insane, though. The drummer, dude. I was like, all right, everyone's like decent. The drummers are the same.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. No, they like that's like a whole plot point in the show. Like he's clearly way better than everybody else.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. It's so obvious.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. But no, they're really good. I mean, they have like a backseat lovers uh kind of vibe, even like a little bit of Cage the Elephant, which is like right up my alley. So yeah, I've been listening to their music like crazy this week, too. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02That's crazy that you brought that up because I think I watched it within the first week it came out, and then they decided within a week they're not revealing it.
SPEAKER_00I was like, what the fuck, man? To be fair, like the story, I see why they ended it. Like now they're like a band and now they're signed, they like make their own music. That's just the the end of the TV series part of it.
SPEAKER_02It would just turn into like the Outer Banks where like every other season's just soccer basically as the first. Yeah. So but yeah. Well, awesome. So I've been watching a lot of movies, like usual. I could go into all of them, but I'm gonna save some because I watched 10 Matt Damon movies this week. Yeah. Kind of tired of his face. But uh so I'll get into that like before we rank his performances. But I'll go over five-star movies that I watched. So three of them being rewatches. The first one being the drama, I rewatched it. And originally I had it at four and a half, and then on a rewatch, I was like, Yep, this is my favorite movie of the year so far.
SPEAKER_00What's it on now?
SPEAKER_02HBO.
SPEAKER_00Okay, okay. I'm gonna watch it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's I like it so much. I heard some people either really like it or they really don't like it. Yeah. I I think the camera works insane with it. I like the script. I think the two performances and playing off each other is perfect with how it goes. And like it just feels like such a small story, but it's all set in New York, and it's right up my alley. I really liked it. Cool, cool. Second five-star movie, this was a first time watch, was Mahole and Drive with David Lynch. We're actually planning on doing this in the podcast way in the future. So, Justin, that would be on the foresight for you. But I was I've been wanting to watch this forever, and I I had time, so I was like, you know what? I'm gonna watch this. And I didn't think I was gonna like it. It's super cool. Um I don't want to spoil it too much for Justin, but five-star movie for me, it moved it into top 20 of all time for me. That's how much I liked it. Geez. Another five-star movie, a rewatch was Broke Back Mountain. I originally had that at four stars, but on the rewatch, I was like, all right, this is like a kind of a perfect love story kind of movie, but like a tragic love story. And then that kind of leads into another rewatch of Titanic that is also a tragic love story that I rewatched and bumped it up from four and a half to five stars because I was like, this is like one of the best epics I've ever seen, and moved it from like 60 on my list up to like top 15 because I was like, it's so nostalgic for me as well. But really great epic movie. And then the other five-star movie being Emily, it's a French film that's set in Paris about this woman that's like going through like a coming of age kind of thing, but she's like going out of her way to help people with their lives, but she is a shy girl and she's trying to like step out to make her life better at the same time and have like a romantic, so it's got like a rom-com feel to it as well. This movie is right up my alley in a lot of ways. It was fun. The cinematography is so unique, it's like it's like Fantastic Mr. Fox a little bit in the way of like how whimsical it is as well, and like how free spirited it feels. And it just it's like a move, the movie makes you feel like you're getting a hug afterwards. And I don't think many movies have made me feel that before. It's like an instant rewatchable for me. Yeah, I liked it so much.
SPEAKER_00I know you were texting me about that one. You were really excited when you saw that, so I'll have to check that out, especially comparing it to Fantastic Mr. Fox. That's one of my favorites.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, just like the whimsical nature of it all, yeah. And the way that it's filmed, it feels a lot like that. Yeah. Very, very similar. Two other movies that I'll just shout out that I really enjoyed, but not quite five stars for me. Was uh the last, oh no, that's a Matt Damon movie. I'll wait for that. Jojo Rabbit. It's a movie about a German little boy who has like his imaginary friend is Hitler, and he's like, it's during World War II and it's set, and they're like harboring like a Jewish little girl, but he's a he's in Germany. He's like in he's in Berlin while this is all going on, and he's just he's grown up with Nazism, and but it's like a comedy at the same time. Quite a unique movie, and I really liked some parts of it, some parts I thought weren't the best, but then some I really liked. I think it's quite an interesting watch that I recommend to check out just because it's just a unique movie. A taiko TD's the director, yeah, and he plays Hitler.
SPEAKER_00I was gonna say, like, a lot of his movies feel like that. Like there's parts that you're like, wow, that's a a really great, you know, scene or a great well done. And then some of it you're like, what the hell is he thinking?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, exactly. Um, and then the other one is I Swear. It came out technically last year in the UK, but for the US it came out this year, so it's another 2026 movie. And it pretty much just shines a light on Tourette syndrome, and it's about this guy that goes through it, and it kind of just shows his story through like his childhood up and how he was like pretty much like people judging him, bullying him. He almost died because he had Tourette's and he said the wrong thing to the wrong people and they didn't believe him and stuff. But then it like really wraps up really nice. I really liked it. Really nice story, and then as well, it's like the actor does really well, even though he doesn't actually have Tourette's, like plays it really well. But yeah, a lot of movies, a lot of movies lately. You've been grinding, man. Yeah, dude. Awesome. Yeah, cool. Yeah, so this week is Matt Damon himself. He himself is kind of a meme to where like SNL like did like a skit with Matt Damon, where they just like the skit was he was the host, and he walked up as like the doctor, or he walked up as a patient, and then the doctor was like, My name's Matt Damon, and then everyone's like, Mike, my name's Matt Damon, my name's Matt Damon. And there's like 10 people saying, I'm Matt Damon, or like, and it was very funny, just as like a meme of like the name itself. What do you think of Matt Damon when you first see him?
SPEAKER_00I gotta bring it up. It's like trending on Reddit and Twitter this week. Somebody asked the question, how many billions of dollars are we gonna spend to try to get Matt Damon home? Because that's all his characters do. They said basically saving Private Ryan, Dogma, Interstellar, The Martian, and now the Odyssey, just to name a few. And I'd argue really the talented Mr. Ripley, which we watched this week, uh, is about them trying to send him back home. I don't know if he really wants to go home, but yeah, Matt Davis wants to go home. Obviously, uh one of the biggest actors of our generation. Um, he's just in everything, right? He's putting his name out there and everything, um, which we'll get dive into his specific filmography later on. But uh yeah, you can't really go far without seeing his face anymore. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, he has 126 acting credits on Letterboxd, which is kind of insane. I described it at the beginning of the week. Somehow he's an A-less actor, but I still feel like he's underrated in where he has the Academy Word for writing, but not for acting. Yeah. Which is kind of insane because watching a lot of his movies this week, one, I think if you watch that actor, that any actor that much, you're gonna get kind of tired of his face. But he's also just such a great actor and it makes it look so easy and seamless in all the movies, even though he's playing different roles. Famously, he went to Harvard and then dropped out. But while at Harvard, he wrote the script for Goodwill Hunting. And when he wrote it, the he gave it to the professor, and they're like, No, continue writing this. Whatever you do, continue writing this. And he took that to heart, and then him and Ben Affleck, one of his childhood best friends, both ended up being A-less actors together, but knew each other since they were eight and ten, would drive each other or would take like share the bus together and the train to go to auditions together. And now they're like create their own production company. Really cool story, actually. Coming up from the bottom, really, for Boston.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I think he I think he's a really underrated actor in a lot of ways, but also so yeah.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I I agree. I think he's underrated in that sense, but I feel like since Goodwill Hunting, has he really had any like really big uh, you know, Academy Award bait kind of movies, I guess you'd say? Like he's really just doing a lot of blockbuster stuff, a lot of action, a lot of like not so serious movies where I feel like I mean, we've seen Goodwill hunting, he really kills in that role, you know?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. We'll get into his performances, I think, a little bit later, like more in depth with him. But I I would agree on that. That's why I think this year is a big year for him. But even that's like an action movie where it's like not many action movie leads win Oscars, you know, especially when he's going up against Tom Cruise, where everyone's saying that this is his role to win an Oscar and finally. Robert Patton's in five movies this year. Yeah. So there's there's a lot of competition already this year, but I wouldn't be surprised if he gets a nom just because he's in a Christopher Nolan movie that I've heard a lot of good things already about. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00And it's definitely an action movie, but I think it's a serious enough role where it'll definitely get Oscar love. Yeah, I think so too. Cool. You want to play the game real quick? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we'll play Spot All again. Um I've been having fun playing this on my own time, but I haven't played today. So let me share it here. Oh thanks. Add right away. Cool. All right, so we're gonna play what movie you want to start with? You wanna do a Matt Damon one? Um Let's do Goodwill. Let's do talked about it. Okay. Okay. Okay, it's close to an 82 score, and then it's close to 1997 with no actors or directors. Huh. I'm gonna try like an actor. And what does black mean again? It's just not close. So it's not even close to a rated R. Yeah. It's probably PG. We could do like a Toy Story. Oh, Toy Story was later. I was thinking, maybe Toy Story was later. Um When was the Lion King? Uh probably right around then. Let's try it, because that'll at least help us with uh the rating. There we go. 94. Hey. I've seen a lot of color here. Okay, so it is in between ninety-seven and ninety-four. It's rated G. And it's family animation adventure. Alright, we're really close.
SPEAKER_02I feel like it has to be a Disney movie, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, the fact that it's yellow makes me think it's Pixar or something. Pixar? Yeah, because I don't know what would be considered close to Disney besides Pixar.
SPEAKER_02Wasn't Hoistway the first Pixar?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I thought so.
SPEAKER_02I thought it was. Do you want to try it? Because Bugs Life was also Bug's Life was also a very early Pixar, but I think Bugs Life was like a lot of. It was right after.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was right after. Alright, let's try it.
SPEAKER_02Dang.
SPEAKER_00Dude, why do we have that on after the first movie? We look he could have got it the second one. I was I was second guessing it. I thought it came out in like '99. Yeah. I think the second one came out in '99. Yeah. That that would make more sense. Awesome. Oh, yeah. Cooked.
SPEAKER_02All right, sweet. Cool, cool, awesome. Uh, you want me to start with Mr. Ripley or do you want to go with Born Identity? Well, let's start with Born Identity.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So yeah.
SPEAKER_02You start then.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So Born Identity, I gotta say, like right off the top. I'm not ripping this movie. It's just clearly this movie is kind of like a blockbuster action movie, not meant to have a lot of critical thought behind this. But basically, Matt Damon, it follows him as an assassin with amnesia. He's kind of rescued uh out of the middle of the ocean in the Mediterranean Sea. And he kind of over time discovers he's a highly trained CIA operative named Jason Bourne. And he he meets a, you know, an ally along the way named Marie, kind of helping him try to figure out who he is, and he's evading the agency because he knows somebody's after him to kill him, but he doesn't know why. He kind of uncovers the secret assassination program to take out some world leaders, and then as he's doing that, he kind of regains his memory. Um I think this movie's plot was okay. Uh I think the ending was kind of lacking intrigue. I think about three-quarters of the way through, we already knew everything. So it led to the final fight being kind of lackluster to me. Um we already knew everything. It was more about who was just gonna win at the end, rather than like more information coming out, kind of changing characters' perspectives. So for that reason, I gave it a six. But what do you think about the overall plot of this?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I I don't think it was convoluted at all. It's pretty straight up. Like he loses his memory because of a rogue mission that goes wrong, and then he's pretty much on the run right after that, trying to figure out who he is, why, why he doesn't remember anything, pretty much. My biggest hit on it is the romance just feels so forced to miss. It like there is like zero chemistry between them. I was like, all right. I watched this like one of it, and it all makes sense because the spoiler alert, even though it came out in like 2004, they kill her off like right at the beginning of the movie, and I was like, thank God. Holy crap, dude, that felt so forced. I was like, dude, I don't think she's a good actress either. Yeah. So I think that was also a problem. But I think the action sequences, the spy network, he's a more believable spy that may go into character as well, but the network itself with the CIA is a little bit more believable than like the James Bond movies for me. Like more believable, but like I don't think the story is as good as the Bond movies usually are, if that makes sense. But I think the whole network building makes a lot is more uh real world, if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, damn. Well, I mean, it was crazy watching this. It was like a time machine, those clunky ass computers they had. I was like, holy shit.
SPEAKER_02Or whether they're like, oh yeah, I I read one comment that was like, this is like one of the last movies where uh they're like, oh, zoom in, enhance. And that's like that's just not how like it actually works.
SPEAKER_01Enhance the photo. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02You zoom in and you can enhance it. It's like, nope, that's actually not how imagery works.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no. Kind of getting into their relationship though, I was gonna bring that up in characters like their romance was like just non-existent. They just basically hook up and then all of a sudden they like somewhat care about each other. But again, like the whole time, I think it was her acting because he clearly cared, right? He was like, I need to get you out of here. Just go to the police, tell them that I was bribing you to help me, and you'll be free. And then she would just sit there, like not saying anything. And I'm like, talk or something, like let me know what's going on with your character because I don't know either. How are you feeling about this? And then she didn't have any backstory either. We could we understand where he's coming from, but why is she running around with this rogue terrorist basically? Like, just okay with doing this. Does she have nothing else better going on with her life?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and at first it was for the money, and then she was like, Yeah, you know what? I guess he's kind of hot, so it's for her. I'll spend.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was simple as that. At least give me some backstory and say, hey, like, she has no family, she's been stuck uh in in Europe for a long time now, and she's got nothing to lose. Okay, boom. Now I see why she would be running around with this guy, but like there was nothing like that. So that also kind of made their chemistry just not work at all. Like she was just kind of there all the time. Also, I texted you about this while watching it. Walter Goggins being credited as research tech number one. Fucking hilarious.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. It's always something about like early 2000s, 90s move and 90s movies where like famous actors are just these really side characters because they're still trying to make it. Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, it was pretty good. And then uh getting into cinematography, I actually thought the cinematography was really great for this as an action movie. I think it's highly praised too for in the early 2000s, kind of uh revolutionizing the fight scenes in the early 2000s. The kind of shaky cam aesthetic definitely defined the franchise from what I'm I read. I haven't seen the other two, but everybody was talking about on Reddit how that really took off the you know, the spy thrillers uh throughout the 2000s and 2010s. Um they did a lot of fight scenes kind of based around how they did it in the born identity, which I thought was kind of cool. Yeah, I read that as well.
SPEAKER_02It's cool, really cool. Actually, it says while you can still see his face and the shakiness works in this movie. Think about the shakiness is that who they took this and ran with it. And you could and I watched it in a lot of his other action movies, not just the born movies, but some other ones that he's in, and then I remember a lot of other action movies in the 2000s. It's either hit or miss, dude. Sometimes it's just too shaky, and I'm like, dude, I can't watch this crap. Like it's like just hold the camera still for once. Like this one, I think they do it really well, but then watching some other ones, I was like, all right, they they took what they did and like made the whole movie revolved around a shaky camera, and it was like, no.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, somebody compared it to Taken, and they were like, dude, taken is borderline unwatchable in the fight scenes because you just don't know what's going on.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Like this, you understand what's going on, but it just shows his skill a lot better. While the other ones, it just makes you more confused. And I think it's supposed to like you're supposed to follow like the speed that they're boobing while the other ones are just like, nah, you're following the brain. And it's like, all right.
SPEAKER_00For dialogue, I give it a six. Before I give my quote, I gotta say the funniest scene was when they were trying to get into the hotel to get the hotel records, and he's giving like this master plan. He's like, I need to know how many security there are when you go in there. I need to know how many people there are in the room. I'm gonna call you, do this and that. And then she just shows up with the record. She's like, Yeah, I just asked him. I was like, Okay, that's a funny bit. Cause like most of the time these spy thrillers are gonna go on this whole like tangent just to get you know their thing that they need, and then it's funny just to be like, oh, actually that works just as well. Yeah, that's a pretty funny bit.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. For me, the the dialogue just wasn't anything too special for me. One of the later Born movies, there's like the line of like, holy shit, it's Jason Born. Like that's like edged in my brain, and I think it's the third one, if I remember right. But uh yeah, the but I was waiting for it to happen in this one, but it never happened. So I was like, dang, you could have just kept it going. It's just every every line, some like random side characters just like, holy shit, it's Jason Bourne.
SPEAKER_04It should have been Walter Goggins. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00No, my favorite line was when he was still trying to like understand. He was talking to Marie and he said, I can tell the license plate numbers on all six cars outside. I can tell you that the waitress is left-handed. Now, why would I know that? How can I know that and not know who I am? So he's just kind of trying to understand why he has all these like really high skill level things, except he can't figure out why. Like he he knows he is somebody and he he's really good at this stuff, but he just can't figure out why. I that was one of my favorite parts of the movie, is just him trying to understand why he's good at all these things. I think they should have played into that and leaned into it a little bit more.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, definitely my reading into it is because like part of your brain remembers like the skills that you have, and another part remembers your like memories. And it's like a quiet assertion between like memories of like your skills and but like skills just being in depth. Yeah, that just shows how highly trained he was beforehand.
SPEAKER_00And then set design, I gave it a six, dude. This movie had that 2000s gray. It was really gray. But I did like that it was pretty like realistic, like nothing, even though they were in Paris and a lot of nice places in Europe, it wasn't like done up. It was like intentionally just like, hey, yeah, this is what it looks like in the real world, not like we kind of talked about with Bond how it's kind of overblown, right? Things are kind of out of proportion. This was very just like how it would be in the real world. He was on the run, he was living in a lot of bad, cruddy hotels. Like nothing looked spectacular. The spectacular elements were supposed to be him as a character, which was done.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah, it's it's quite interesting to compare it to like some other actions like moot like John or uh franchises like James Bond, the Mission Impossible ones, and as well as John Wick, to where each one of the set pieces are quite different. And this one is by far the most realistic because they like to play up those other sets to be more fantastical, which I think was like pretty cool, especially like him hopping out and then he does his own this part of the acting, but also kind of gets into set design where he is actually doing his own stunt work, and it's pretty obvious that he's doing his own stunt work.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean it was pretty uh well done stunt work too. I mean, I think like we talked about all the fight scenes were pretty well done. And so kind of getting into that with the acting, I gave it a six. I think he was a real standout here, but I think the cast around him was pretty lackluster. Nothing special going on for anybody. I know uh a lot of the other people were CIA agents and their backgrounds were kind of just intentionally left like ambiguous and their motivations ambiguous, but I think he was the real standout here.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. No, yeah, it's Damon's movie, takes it over, but like their side, the second leading co character, Bush is like the worst actor in the movie. So it's like it's kind of hard to rate it well after that. But Brad Pitt was like turned it down. He was offered it and he turned it down, which I thought was interesting. I think it'd be quite a different movie. They end up doing Oceans together, but yeah, I feel like Damon fits it a little bit better. But this is coming at a time when Damon was kind of viewed as like, I mean, Goodwill Hunting, you got Saving Private Ryan, uh, you got Mr. Ripley. He does none of those give off action stars, you know. And then he learns like hand-to-hand combat, he loses a bunch of weight, tries to get ripped, and then does this role and kind of kills it and becomes the whole franchise pretty much because of his performance. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Directing, I gave it a five, directed by Doug Lehman. Apparently, so he had created differences with Universal after this movie and walked away from the franchise as a whole. He hasn't done much else. I saw he did like The Roadhouse with Jake Gyllenhaal, the newer one. Makes a lot of sense. Yeah, but that's kind of it. Um, but I thought it was pretty decently directed, decent thorough story. I if I had to knock it, I'd say the pacing was a little bit off. Like I said, we kind of know everything by the middle of the movie about all his secrets. To me, you want to kind of save those to the end for a big reveal at the end, but that's just how I would, you know, envision it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you don't want to show your whole cards until especially in like a mystery kind of a thriller action like this is supposed to be. And I was like, when I rated it, it was like, yeah, I set up a whole franchise, so I gotta give it at least five out of ten with like a little boost of like being a pretty well-liked franchise. But something for me was just missing from this, like in a directing stance, and it makes sense why there's just disagreements and why you didn't do a diff another one.
SPEAKER_00This movie must have done well at the box office, because I feel like if this came out today, it's definitely not getting a sequel. Yeah. I don't know, I don't think so either. Or they already had signed on for a couple movies with Damon Damon or something, but yeah. Yeah, maybe. Soundtracked, I gave it a six. Um I you know, it used music to convey plot points, nothing special. I didn't I wasn't like uh taken out of the movie by the soundtrack by any means in a good way or bad way.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'm complete opposite. I fucking I understand it's two thousands mute like action movie, but it was so distracting to me, and I absolutely hated it. I like I was just like, alright. It's like alright. It's like I need to turn down the volume on this. I didn't notice it. It was it was quite distracting for me. I was like, I I I really don't like that kind of soundtrack where it just seems like filler sometimes for me.
SPEAKER_00For the theme for this movie, again, it's a blockbuster movie. There's not a lot to dive into here. Um I'd say government accountability, but again, that's barely touched on, just between uh, you know, the the head of the assassins and then also the uh you know the guy actually at the top of the CIA. It's just kind of barely touched on, but also memory and identity, right? Just kind of trying to figure out who you are as a person and what what you're meant to do in this life.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. What I really like about some of the Mission Impossible movies is that it's all revolved around finding your identity as well, but I think they're drawed out a little bit better. That's what I'm missing from the themes in this movie and why I only gave it a five, was because like the main theme is trying to find out who you really are and like who you are true to yourself, but it's just not drawn out enough. Like he doesn't talk about it enough, nothing's revealed enough about it, like about his character. So for me, that was just what was missing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and it's like they almost started to, right, man, when they went to the uh what was it, her her friend's house and they were staying there, the and Matt Damon was like playing with the kids. And it ended up being the reason he didn't uh assassinate that world leader was because he was had his son and all his kids around him when he was asleep. And it's like, okay, what's that about? I don't know if they dive into that in later movies. Does he have kids? What's his connection with kids? Why is he, you know, why did he not kill this guy he was trained to kill because of kids? Dive into that more. Give me a story that makes me feel a little like heart shaken for this guy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I watched the second one recently. I I've probably watched the other two with Damon way back. Um, but I don't remember the plot lines of those ones at all. But the second one gets more into like a revenge because they kill the girl at the beginning.
SPEAKER_00But that was the other thing. I was like, I don't know where you go from here at the end of this movie. Like it's it's like happy ever after.
SPEAKER_02So I think it's because they didn't know if it was gonna continue or not. Yeah. They wanted to leave it open in it enough to where they could open it back up. Kind of feels like a James Bond thing, you know? Yeah. Most James Bond movies end and you're like, I don't know where they go from here, but then they just re-introduce him into another scenario pretty much. Exactly. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Editing, I gave it a six. I thought it did pretty well, especially like we talked about talked about with the action sequence. Uh pretty rapid cuts and movements. Again, I think great choreography overall for the fighting sequence. Um, like we talked about Matt Damon doing his own stunts. I I thought the longer shots in the fight scenes was cool too, because it didn't really give uh the audience a chance to kind of catch their breath and relax. It was like it did make you feel like he was always on the run and there's trouble around every corner, which was pretty neat. Yeah, no, I definitely agree.
SPEAKER_02It was building up till the end. I don't think there was anything dragging too much, maybe a little bit to the middle, or maybe like the romantic parts, just because I don't want to keep beating a dead horse, so I just kept feeling so forced, and I was like, we don't need to see this.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. So overall, I gave this movie a 5.9 out of 10. I can't hate on it too much. You know, it was a blockbuster spy action thriller. Um, you're not gonna get a whole lot of substance out of those, but it was a fun watch. I I I enjoyed just, you know, not turning well, yeah, turning off my brain and just watching this through.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's a good way to describe it as well. Yeah, I gave it a 6.2 out of 10 or 62 out of 100. It's a very similar score. I enjoyed it. I I wouldn't mind because I watched the second one pretty soon after it, and then I'm probably gonna watch the third and fourth just because I'm like, why not? So nothing too crazy.
SPEAKER_00If I'm understanding right, there's five, right? And the fourth one, Damon left. It was Jeremy Renner.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I don't know what the whole backstory to that is. I may have to look into that. Tony Gilroy is the director for that one, which Tony Gilroy is a pretty like good, well known like writer. So I yeah, I may have to look into that. And Gilroy and Damon are friends, so that's even makes it even more confusing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Maybe he was just trying to do a different movie to came up with his schedule. He came back for the fifth one though.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay. With his own and that one was under his production company that he founded with Ben Affleck. Okay. So which is also interesting.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Maybe maybe that had something to do with why he didn't do it. I don't know. I may have to look more into it, but yeah, he left for that movie. That movie was kind of a miss, and then they did a Born Legacy one kind of to wrap it all up, it I think. But I don't I don't I haven't watched it, so or don't really remember how it goes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Awesome. So moving into a movie that comes out earlier in his career, um, almost like right after Goodwill Hunting, the talented Mr. Ripley, follows the story of Tom Ripley as kind of a con man-esque, where he uh says that he goes to Princeton because he's playing the piano for his buddy because he has a broken hand, and then from that kind of goes into a story to go find this rich guy's son, but then becomes obsessed with the son and his life and his wealth, and it kind of turns dark to where some murders happen. He kills the son, and then he kills his friend, but this whole time he's manipulating everybody around him, and then he starts like stealing the identity of the son, Dickie Greenleaf, and starts going by his name, but then also has a romantic interaction with as him. Quite like a convoluted plot, and I feel like you need to be paying attention because I feel like if you look away for like five minutes, you can be like, Definitely, what the hell just happened? Why did this change all of a sudden? He kind of plays like an oddball character as well. Like this is quite a unique Damon performance, in my opinion, compared to a lot of his other films. Yeah. Quite quite a weird guy. Like the whole movie, you're like, something's off about this guy. So you're not surprised by what happens.
SPEAKER_00Somebody, I think I saw like a letterbox review, and they said the first half of this movie is call me by your name, and then it switches into American Psycho, like right over five, like a period of five minutes. And if you miss that five minutes and you walk out of your room, you're gonna come back and be like, What the hell? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, like maybe Drew Law's character, Dickie Reenleaf, is like a little bit bi.
SPEAKER_00That's Drew Law. I j that's just hitting me. I didn't even rec I was like, this guy looks so familiar, but I have no idea who this is. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02For the plot, I gave it eight out of ten. It drags a little bit in the middle there. Not too much for me, though. I I was still kept on my toes, understanding the nuance of the film. It aligns well with fitting the theme of like obsession, wealth, being well liked. He's a very people-pleaser kind of person. And then it also aligns well with like explaining how he manipulates people's emotions and just coming off as like a very likable, normal person, but then like behind the scenes, you're like, this guy's a weirdo.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think the beginning really dragged for me, but I think it had to. Um, I think you they really flushed out the relationship between the two characters really well. Jude Long's character and Matt Damon's character. It made you feel like, oh, this is a really weird relationship that they have. And it almost had you like kind of uncomfortable every time they were together because you didn't really understand what both of them were getting out of it until that halfway point. And then yeah, it happens.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it it's like 30 minutes. That's not even less than 30 minutes. I think it's like 20-ish minutes into the movie, and he starts impersonating his father.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And I don't know how that doesn't like trigger him to be like, oh, he's like, Oh, yeah, I'm really good at impersonations and fake signatures, and and he's like, Oh, you want. And then he does his father, and he's like, huh? And he doesn't think that's like really weird. Like, I don't know. For me, that's like an instant red flag. I'm like, I'm not, I don't fuck with this guy. But but yeah. Characters, I gave it eight out of ten. I think all the characters were well done. You didn't need crazy backstories to understand that a lot of them were just really rich people from a rich, wealthy lifestyle, kind of spoiled in a sense, to where it was hard for them to notice like the little nuances because they just don't come from a life where they need to care about the small things. And each character plays a different archetype where like at first she seems like the ditzy, like dumb girlfriend, but then she ends up being the only one that actually knows what's going on. With the girls obsessed with them, the the dumb best friend, which Philip Seymour Hoffman plays so well, it's actually insane. I don't know how he can play that perfectly, but yeah. What do you think of the characters?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he's such a good character, like he's just such a good character actor. Everything I've seen him in, he like fully embraces the character. Yeah. But overall, the characters were really done well. And I mean, really not that many. I'd say like four, maybe five important characters to the plot of the story. And then obviously they come in and out as needed. It's not like um you're forced to follow these same five, the whole movie. You're you're forced to follow Matt Damon's character, obviously, but then the other ones are perfectly interweaved and and through the plot. You know, none of them kind of outshines the other, which is uh pretty crucial to you know making this feel thrilling for the audience.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I mean it helps when you have like a really good, like young cast before they all become really big. Because like Kate Blanchett would be huge right now, like Gwyneth Paltrow, Dude Law, Damon, recipe for Sorry Moore Hoffman, but like though all those guys, they're like lead actors or actresses. They're not like side people. So the fact that they're all like working together in this film, I think that also boosts like the characters because they're just able to play them so well. Cinematography, I gave it nine out of ten. I thought there were some like really cool camera shots throughout it that were really unique for like a lot of other films I've seen during that time, especially for like a psychological like thriller sense to it at some points, where like I was like, this is like kind of turning its head at some points, but then it goes back. Like when he when he hits Philly Seymour Hoffman's like character's head, and then it follows it as rolled, but then like you kind of get like a clue before it even happens because they show the sculpture throughout, it's like a main set piece into it. I just thought that was cool camera work, and then it's shot in Italy and it looks beautiful, like a summertime kind of feel to the movie.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, dude, I gotta highlight that last shot after he kills Peter. That was pretty nuts too. Kind of just him sitting there, but we hear Peter like narrating over their hug, and he's clearly like choking him out or something like that. Yeah. That was tense. And I what a perfect way to end the movie. Yeah, just such a neat shot.
SPEAKER_02Well, have you did you notice like every scene with just him and no other characters is from like a third person point of view, like looking through a mirror?
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02Isn't that so interesting?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I didn't know you say it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, when he's because like right at the beginning of the movie, he's talking to himself, trying to like introduce how he's gonna introduce himself to Dickie Greenleaf through a mirror. Yeah. When he's like wearing Dickie's clothes before he gets caught in the mirror at the end of the movie, in the mirror. Yeah, that's cool. I think it's so yeah, it's so interesting to me that I was like, that's really cool. Dialogue, I gave it nine out of ten as well. Not like too many memorable lines, but it just felt very natural with the flow and then like kind of like eerie things here and there. I always thought it would be better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody. Sometimes it feels like old English that they're talking, but that's just because they're wealthy. So it's like a riddle that you have to figure out to belong.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I I think I really like the dialogue and the scene where he was about to kill Gwyneth Paltrow's character. That was eerie. That was like where we really start seeing because the whole time you're kind of like, Oh, this guy's probably not that bad. He's just done a bad thing. And then you're like, Oh, he's like way deep in this every every every line after his first kill, you're like, Oh yeah, this is he's gone too far. Like, there's no turning back for him.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. No, the dialogue kind of like escalates as well, where at first he seems very like innocent, and then towards the end, it kind of becomes more complex to where he's becoming this like full-on psychopath that he is. Acting, I gave it a 10 out of 10 because I think everyone acted their asses off. The fact that Damon did get an Oscar nomination for this one. Um, we may get into his performances, but this is an all-timer for me. Great support into it. DiCaprio declined it. It was offered to him first, and I was like, this is a very DiCaprio aspect.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I was gonna say that feels like DiCaprio.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. They end up acting along each other, anyways, in the departed. So Jude Law was a really big standout, some like, but they all stand out in their own ways. But Jude Law just shout out to him as well. Really, really good acting by him.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, not to bring up uh, you know, a different movie while we're talking about this, but this role really feels similar to the departed for Matt Damon, like an innocent acting person, but really with some dark, dark uh motives, and which was so interesting to see that again after we watched The Departed on this show. I I really felt like that was the same character for him. Interesting.
SPEAKER_02I see it a little bit more nuanced just because of the weirdness takes that he does compared to the departed and any other movie that I've seen with him. He doesn't really do weird takes like that. Either he's like a weird character, the whole thing, or like a that kind of archetype, but this one he's going back and forth. Normal, psycho, and then like just weird. Yeah, it's which I think is quite unique. And then soundtrack and effects. Um, all I gotta really say is I fuck with the jazz. I gave it a nine out of ten.
SPEAKER_00I texted you, I said me and Mr. Ripley got a lot in common. We both like jazz. That was before I realized this guy was a psychotic thriller killer.
SPEAKER_02So this is clear in the air there. Yeah, I mean, he really didn't like jazz at first, and then he did because Dickie Greenleaf did. Yeah, exactly. I I just like what you like. So it's pretty much like copying him. I think that's what Dickie like really picked up to it, and that's what he was getting after when they were on the boat was like, you're just copying what I like. You don't actually like your own things.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You never bring that. Set design kind of goes hand in hand with what I said about cinematography, but the Italy feel of it, it was all set in Italy, other than like the New York scenes at the beginning of the film. And it feels big, but also small at the same time, which is quite unique for that. Like small town Italy, but then like you go into like big houses and stuff that makes it feel a little bit bigger, but then they go outside and it feels small. I think really cool set design.
SPEAKER_00It looked cool, it looked like Italy felt like a summer in Italy, and I think that's what the movie did so great. It's like, well, of course, I wouldn't want to go back to the US either. I'd be living on the beaches of Italy, jet skiing, having the time of my life. And then, you know, just to take such an eerie twist was uh in such a beautiful place, was neat. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02The directing I gave a nine out of ten really cool adaptation from the book. I haven't read the book, but I heard this was like a way better adaptation than a previous iteration of the movie. And their Netflix came out with a show in the 2020s, and everyone said it was not good. The director won an an o Oscar for Best Director three years prior, but a lot of people say that this is his best movie by far. But yeah. Who was it? I thought it was really well, I have to look it up real quick. You can look it up real quick.
SPEAKER_00I was just curious what they they won for.
SPEAKER_02They won for the English patient, I know that, but I forgot the name of the director. Let's see.
SPEAKER_00Anthony Ming Mingela.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Mingela. Okay. Yeah, and he won for the English patient, which I have not seen. Yeah, I haven't seen that either. For editing, it gave you a seven out of ten. Um, like I said right at the beginning, where the middle kind of dragged for me a little bit. Um, I think overall really well done and really cool edited shot. But yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think it was done really well. I think it was edited uh in the suspense really well. And then obviously towards the end, he's kind of on the run from everybody. Um, I think that was uh edited pretty well too, you know, him trying to get back into his room, but you know, she can't see that it's him getting in there. The cops have to know that it's him getting in there, not Dickie Green. So it was, yeah, I think it was done well.
SPEAKER_02And then themes I gave a seven out of ten where it's uh starts with like their wealth status. He kind of gets obsessed with like being wealthy, he like living that life, he likes that lifestyle, but then he becomes obsessed with Dickie, but to the point where he doesn't want to be away from him. Uh he just becomes shocked about it. And then it turns from like somebody asking him if he's is that person, he just doesn't want to live a different life, and he's so obsessed with him where he becomes him. Uh so big obsession type of thing, like things about it and just wealth. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. No, I think the themes were done really well. Uh obviously the whole web of lies is uh very interesting thing to dive into, but obviously seeing his character kind of crumble, like you said, from this innocent person to this very uh creepy, you know, kind of stalky kind of person was uh an interesting thing to watch. Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so overall I gave it 8.5 out of 10 or 85 out of 100. Um pretty high rating, especially compared to the Born Identity. But I think his role was very unique in this film, but also the movie was really good. I really enjoyed the movie.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, definitely a different kind of movie. I mean, you don't see something like this all the time. I mean, I think this movie is definitely hard to pull off without the right actors in place. I gave it an 8.2 out of 10, just a little bit lower, but I really enjoyed this movie. Yeah, this is a fun watch. Um, and I definitely go back and watch this one again. It it feels super re-watchable to me.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I I agree with that. Awesome. So yeah, that wraps up like just a discussion of the talented Mr. Ripley and the Born Identity with Matt Damon specifically, right before we get into ranking his top ten performances for us of his movies. Before we get into that, I watched a lot of Matt Damon movies this week, so I just want to go over them a little bit. Um, so the ones that I specifically watched this week were the two, obviously, The Born Identity and The Talented Mr. Ripley. I also watched The Last Duel, which I gave four and a half. I really enjoyed that movie. It involves him, Adam Driver, and uh give me one second. Don't want to get her name wrong. And Jody Comer. Really cool movie where like it pick it's like follows like these nights during like older English time, but from three different perspectives, all survolving around like a case kind of thing, that revolves around like them having a duel for their lives, pretty much, between Adam Driver and Matt Damon's character, where they start off as friends but then end up enemies. Really well acted by both of them. And I I really like the story because most movies where they come from different Same story, but different perspectives. It kind of gets boring. Shout out to the movie last year with Catherine Bigelow. I forget the name of it, but same story, just three different perspectives. And that one sucked, and this one was really well done. So I was like, yeah, that that I really like that. Contagion, another four and a half out of five stars for me. Really enjoyed it. Eerily accurate with how COVID went. This movie came out in 2011, and it predicted how exactly how COVID would have gone like nine years later. Everyone was like, all right, they cooked with this. Because it's just about an outbreak and how the world reacts to it and everything.
SPEAKER_00I think I remember watching that in like high school or something.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. And Matt Damon plays like the most normal character in it, like the everyday dude, and he makes it look so easy in it. And I I was like, I said, why would they put an A-list actor as this guy? And I was like, somehow you don't even realize he's Matt Damon. Yeah. Rounders, one of his early movies was Edward Norton. Kind of a gambling movie, nothing too special. Stillwater, 2021. Um Oklahoma dude trying to get his daughter freed in France. And it's kind of boring, not gonna lie. Green Zone, he's in Iraq trying to see if they have weapons of mass destruction. They didn't. Born Supremacy, the second one of it. I liked it a little bit better than Born Identity, uh, mainly because it's just him doing badass things the whole time. The Rainmaker, uh, he's a lawyer in this one, which I don't think he does any other lawyer film. So I was like, oh, interesting. And he has a southern accent in the film. And the side character, the main supporting character is Danny DeVito as his side lawyer. I actually liked it. I I surprisingly liked it. I don't know. I didn't expect to. I was like, this looks like super cheesy, but it was surprisingly pretty good. Margaret, he plays a teacher in this, a really minor character in this. The follows this girl who's going through grief after seeing a crazy accident. Interesting movie. Really long. Uh and then I watched True Git, and I really like True Grit. They have four and a half out of five stars. I hadn't watched it before, and really simple, good Western, and he plays like a side character as well in that one.
SPEAKER_00That one I was trying to get in this week. I was like, I feel like I gotta watch that one if we're gonna rank his movies, and I just didn't get a chance to watch it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Well when we get to ranking, it's gonna be hard to do top ten. I thought about switching it to top fifteen, but I was like, uh We gotta get a challenge going, dude. Yeah, because I've seen 32 of his films now, so. Yeah. Jesus.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I see a lot of Matt David. A little too much. Alright, let's let's do it. Okay.
SPEAKER_00You wanna how do you wanna do it? So we're gonna go w each pick one, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, each of us do like 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, and then uh if you wanna pull up the wheel, I we could see who gets 10 and who gets nine, and then down and so forth. I I feel like we should work a little bit more kind of collaboratively so we can get like a good list.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, because I'm gonna need we bought a zoo like top five at least. Alright.
SPEAKER_04Nah, dude, it's there. Don't hate it. We bought a zoo. I fucking love that movie, dude. All right, I think. Five out of five.
SPEAKER_02The wheels spun me, so I don't know what that means. That means you get ten, and then nine, eight, and then yeah, and then you get eight, six, four, two. All right, number ten. Before we start, before we start, you haven't seen the ocean movies, right? No. Alright.
SPEAKER_00We'll see how this list goes. Trust big dog. This is gonna be a great list. All right. Number ten, since we're ranking his performances, I feel like I want to put this on here, but again, such a small role in the movie. I'm gonna do number 10 saving private Ryan. Just because the movie's not, you know, I mean, it is centered around him, but he's not, you know, in the movie all that much. I still think it's a really good role for him, especially the few scenes he's in.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. I mean, uh it makes sense why you want to put it in there. Uh this isn't even personally in my top 15. Shit, man.
SPEAKER_04You better make some room for we bada zoo then. We're not putting we botazoo in this list. Yes, we are, man. No, we don't.
SPEAKER_02I love that movie. All right. At number nine, I'm gonna put this movie. I think you've seen this movie, though. No, yeah, I'm gonna put Invictus on this at number nine. I have not seen this. Okay. Thank God I'll put it here then. Invictus, uh movie about South Africa, as they're going through, like Nelson Mandela is starting to be the president, and he plays, I damn plays like the head of the captain of the rugby team. He has a South African accent. Apparently, he worked on it for a whole year before starting acting because Clint Eastwood famously is a one-take person. He doesn't do multiple takes of shots. Um, so he was like, I only have one take to do these accents perfectly. And he did really well in the movie, really inspirational. I just don't think it should go anywhere near the top five, but still a really cool role for him.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Okay, cool, cool. Number eight, I'm gonna take air. I don't know if that's too early. I really like Matt Damon's role in this movie. I think he really dove into the character, and I think it's a great story, especially the um relationship between him and Michael Jordan's mom. I thought was some of the best acting scenes I've seen from Matt Damon.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think Air is good. I still I have this pretty low as well. Um I mean, it's just not fair to like compare just because I've seen I feel like a lot more.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So it's just like I've seen some of his older different roles. I do think it's a good role though for him. He's like the center of the movie as well. So it's like kind of a crucial role with the film. And I feel like we're getting to that category, like this part of the film where he needs to be like either the center or like playing hand in hand with someone else. Yeah. With that being said, at number seven, I want to take the entire Bourchise. I'm not taking one of I I think the whole Bourchise should go at seven. Okay. Just draft a case. You know what? And you know what? We can get hurt for that, whatever. We're not picking one of the movies. We're picking him as a character, he's playing James Bourne. He's really known for it. But again, he's playing multiple in the same film. It's not like he's doing nuance within these different films. He's playing the same guy. Yeah. So that's my why I think it's fine to take him at this. Cool, cool. Um, I'm I think there's a clear top six, but I think you've seen all of them except for one. So I'm I think you got this.
SPEAKER_00All right, number six, I'm taking we bought a zoo, baby. No, Vita. I'm just playing. I'm gonna take Ford vs.
SPEAKER_01Ferrari here. All right, yeah, yeah, yeah. There we go. Like, I really think you have this. I just shit on it.
SPEAKER_00No, uh Ford vs. Ferrari is really great. Similar role to Air. I think it's uh, you know, about a guy taking a risk on his career. Uh-huh. And really I think Matt Damon really goes into it. Southern Accent wasn't too bad in this one. Um, I think it's a great movie, and obviously kind of headlined right next to Christian Bale in this one too. They work really well off of each other.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. That's why I think it's a little bit better than Air as well, just because him and Bale play a lot better off of each other. Just because in Air, he's not necessarily playing off another guy like the whole film. Yeah. He's playing off multiple people. Maybe if he was just like him and Ben Affleck for the whole movie, then it'd be like, all right, I I get it. But yeah, yeah. Cool. Number five. It was number five. I am going to take the last duel here. Obviously, I think this is the only movie you haven't seen. Yeah. That will probably be in the top four. I really like the performance. He is the first third of the film, he's the main guy, but he plays throughout the rest of it. Plays really well as an enemy of Adam Driver, but also plays really just well as like an old English guy. I also just think the film rocks and really recommend it to anybody out there by Ridley Scott. Kind of slept on when it came out.
SPEAKER_00I think we are leaving one off here.
SPEAKER_02No, we aren't. Because I think you're thinking of one, and no. I like the Martian. No, that's not the one I'm talking about. Are you gonna the last four that I'm thinking Talon and Mr. Ripley, Goodwill Hunting, The Martian, and the Departed.
SPEAKER_00You're not putting Oppenheimer on here?
SPEAKER_02No. Really? He plays such a side character in that. I'm sorry, but no.
SPEAKER_00I think he's crucial to the whole first half of the movie. Okay. The other four, he's like he's like one of the main. That's true. But I still think it deserved to be on the list. That was a good role for him.
SPEAKER_02What would you take out then? Where he's like the main and pretty much all these other ones. That's where saving Private Ryan would be a good spot for Oppenheimer instead.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but it's kind of yeah. We can change that if you want. I just had it higher. I like his role in Oppenheimer. It's okay. All right. I guess I'll go ahead and take the Martian here. I'm not the biggest fan of the Martian, but I think it has to be on the list. Yeah. It's good, I mean, really good acting from him. So I guess, yeah, it it should be higher than the movie itself, you know, just the movie in general. But obviously, being alone, having to, you know, act all alone for so many of your scenes, it's really tough to kind of work through that. But yeah, it's impressive.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I read something about the movie or watched a video of his where he explains where they recorded all the scenes with the other actors like Jessica Chastine and Carlos Pena, all of them months before. And then it was just him and Ridley Scott for the rest of the time. And so in the final scene, it is the final scene that they filmed of like him going up in the sky, and they actually play like Jessica Chastine's like voiceover to get an emotion out of him. And that and then he's just like thinking about how this guy hasn't heard a human voice in like a whole year and a half. So it's like, yeah, the emotions start hitting, and he's like, it felt like a really real like moment for him. Yeah. So that was pretty cool. Um, number three. I think there's a clear top two, so I'm gonna take the departed here with number three. Yeah. I think we've done it on this podcast before. Really good role with him. Um Leonardo DiCaprio, yep. First episode, and then opposite of Leonardo DiCaprio. My opinion, Loki, I think he plays his role better than DiCaprio does in that film. Maybe a hot take, but I think he does. Um, but I think Marky Mark takes over the film, in my opinion. I think he's plays the best asshole Bostonian in that film. But still really good role, crucial to the film. You you hate him. He's like the villain of the film in a lot of sense, even though Jack Nicholson is like the crime boss. You hate Matt Damon more. Yeah. You're like this kind of crap. Yeah, he's like a snake. Yeah. And then he just like kind of abuses that woman, not like physically, but like emotionally. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00All right. Here I'm taking the talented Mr. Ripley. Okay. I think, yeah. I think obviously we talked about this one a lot. I just think uh Goodwill Hunting is his, you know, masterpiece.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. No, I definitely agree. I think I think the list would look a little cooler if talented Mr. Ripley was number one, because I feel like everybody puts Goodwill Hunting number one. But I agree with that. You don't have to be different, man. Sometimes you got to, man. My personal list, I have Mr. Ripley number one just because I think the performance is a little more nuanced, but you have to take into factor that he wrote the entire story for Goodwill Hunting.
SPEAKER_00That, and then I think it's just way more emotional. I mean, I I think of that scene where um, you know, he like breaks down in front of Robin Williams. That scene is a tough watch, dude. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Dude, I've heard so many. I think I've heard more stories about this film than I've actually watched it. Like I I've watched it probably maybe once or it is a hard watch, but maybe once or twice in my life. But like the amount of stories I hear just from him, Affleck talk about it. Uh I just how well they talk about Robert Williams as well. Because the last part of the film where he's like, Oh, he stole my line, he Robert Williams came up with that the point. Like it was an improv, it wasn't writ written down, and then they got so excited because it was like their first movie, like actually writing him and like Ben Affleck and started hugging each other, like we got our fucking film. Such a cool story because the year prior to that, Oscars, they were at their mom's house watching the Oscars, and then the next year they brought their moms to the Oscars when they won. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, such a cool story for them. And then they both just turn out to be like the Boston actors, yeah, just blockbuster actors.
SPEAKER_00That's what I'm saying. Like, look at this list now, dude. It's like half of them are all blockbusters, if not more. I'd say probably 80%. And so it's like I we know he has goodwill hunting in him, but is does he want to do that, you know?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Because if for the Oscars, they mainly give like emotional roles for lead actors. They you have to get pretty emotional to win an Oscar. But then Michael B. Jordan won this year, and he he was emotional at points, but not like super emotional, not like a Casey afflict. Yeah. Which he was supposed to play the lead actor in Manchester by the Sea, Matt Damon was. No, there's conf uh schedule conflicts. So he gave it over, and he's like, This is like a perfect script. And then he was he's been joke here, he jokes about like I gave Casey his Oscar.
SPEAKER_00I think he also turned down Avatar because of a scheduling conflict, didn't he? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, he would have gotten like two percent of like the income from Avatar. So he'd be like the richest guy in the world.
SPEAKER_01The highest grossing movie of all time. Yeah. What did he turn it down for?
SPEAKER_02I don't maybe it was if it was true, grit, I understand. Sometimes art takes over, but yeah, look it up. If it's like some really bad movie.
SPEAKER_01Born ultimatum.
SPEAKER_02Uptake. Up take. I've heard that's the best born movie, but I know, but still.
SPEAKER_00I know that's probably his that's that's his other, like, you know, that's his thing too.
SPEAKER_02So just gotta let him You're telling me that the main actor couldn't have been like, yo, can we push this so I could be in this like James Cameron movie? Like it's James freaking Cameron. Like is what it is. Do we want to swap out Oppenheimer with Saving Private Ryan? Leave it in. Leave it in. All right. My personal list, I had the Ocean's Films M10, Contagion number nine, but then I had Oppenheimer at 13, true grid above that. It's just hard when you're like ranking like lead films and then him playing with people.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I know. I was kind of balancing out my my number two between Oppenheimer and we bought a zoo behind Goodwill Hunting. So it's just kind of like, you know, it's a lot to dive into when you kind of look at how important he is to the plot of the movie.
SPEAKER_01He was the one that bought the zoo, but he bought the zoo, so it's like you kind of gotta put that up there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, he's the one that that feeds the feeds the lion, becomes best friends with the lion, emotionally attached to that lion.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. I mean, I'd argue that if we did a top ten Scarlet Johansen, we bought a zoo's probably like three or four for her, too. Sure.
SPEAKER_04And I forgot that she was even in that.
SPEAKER_02That's the thing. All right, so top ten for him, we put number ten, saving private riot, number nine, Invictus, eight, air, seven, the entire Born franchise, six, Ford vs. Ferrari, five, the last duel, four, the Martian, three, the departed, two, the talented Mr. Ripley, and one Goodwill Hunting.
SPEAKER_00I'm having Madison edit in an honorable mention at the end for We Bada Zoo, just for the bit.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, just for the bit. Maybe add in like he he does like our Euro Trip as well. Add in Euro Trip is honorable mention. Have you I don't think you've seen it, but like he plays he plays like a lead singer of like a punk band, and he just sings about like stealing this guy's girlfriend, and he's like bald and like has earring, and it and this comes out in like 2005. And everyone's like, what the fuck is Matt Damon doing? He's like plays like a high school kid. Somebody told gave him the wrong script. It's like such a random, funny role. It's kind of like Tom Cruise and Tropic Thunder. They're like, What is what is what are they doing? They were just bored. Cool though. Yeah, that wraps up like us talking about Matt Damon um before the Odyssey comes out. Yeah. Sick. Gonna be a sick movie. I'm excited. Thanks for listening this week. Um, we have our one year anniversary film or uh episode coming out in the near future, so look out for that. But yeah, see you guys next time. See ya, see ya.